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linkspam: pedestrian safety, US politics from Slate, eco-friendly building

Sat, 09 Sep 2023 16:56:50 GMT

Death by Design by Lizzie O’Leary: There’s nothing “accidental” about pedestrian deaths

The Biggest Difference Between the Georgia Indictment and the Jan. 6 Indictment by Richard L. Hasen: It’s about the central role that race is likely to play not in the federal case but in the state case, from the race of the prosecutor, to the focus on Black election worker Ruby Freeman, to the essential nature of the race-baiting bogus voter-fraud charges in Georgia that formed Trump’s basis for falsely claiming that he was the rightful winner

Planting a seed: bio-based building by Summer Islam: As the construction industry embraces more plant‑based materials, their cultivation must be scaled up in a responsible manner

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Tue, 27 Jun 2023 17:20:40 GMT

My first time experiencing generalized wildfire smoke. Chicago's gone purple on the air quality map today. It's really a lot, emotionally/psychologically. So much of how I know how to live is about fresh air and open windows, going outside when stress rears up, spending lots of time out-of-doors. It's really not that different from hunkering down during a cold snap or blizzard, but it feels different. The air is bad. It's a lot.

I don't have a lot of climate controls at my apartment; I tend to rely on natural air conditioning here by the Big Lake. Windows closed, fans on, shower running sometimes on the theory that it might clear away particles; I don't pay for hot water here, and it's pretty darn unlimited in this old boiler building. Not sure about heating food this afternoon, as I only have the gas oven/stovetop. Might be better to eat cold things for a bit.

At least this time it won't be long; conditions are supposed to improve overnight. I'm catsitting for my sister this week; thinking I might wait until later to make the 1.2 mile walk. The beasts have plenty of food and water, I'm mostly just hanging out with them. I can stay extra long tomorrow and we can all chill on the patio together, provided the air is in fact better.

eta: my cat and I are at my sister's, where there's AC and air purifiers. I'm managing cat interactions and trying not to feel too jerked around by it all.

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Tolkien read-aloud: Rohirrim, Ents, and collective action hopes

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 16:22:38 GMT

A and I have reached Rohan in our read-aloud of LotR, and I was thinking about the story's belief in the need for -- and possibility of -- collective action in the face of collective emergency. One might theorize that one of the things this book has meant to readers in the 20th and 21st centuries is a hopeful image of a world, not so unlike our own, where the adults are actually capable of putting away individual despair, joining together, and committing collective resources against an otherwise-unsurvivable crisis.

What wouldn't we give for the leaders of the world today to respond to COVID, or climate change, as Theoden, Eomer, Hama manage to do. How dearly we want to rouse the ents. How good it is to see the peoples of Middle-earth struggle to come together, and then succeed in doing so.

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Mon, 05 Aug 2019 04:41:14 GMT

Emotively, I think part of why climate change is hitting me hard hard right now has to do with the warming in the Arctic. ( Read more... )

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